The National September 11 Memorial

The National September 11 Memorial is bound by Liberty, Fulton, Greenwich and West sts. The 8-acre memorial lies on half of the World Trade Center grounds. The 9/11 Memorial's design, “Reflecting Absence,” features two pools of water embedded in the footprints of the fallen Twin Towers. Each pool is almost 1 acre and is fed by a 30-foot waterfall; the water disappears into the center abyss. Surrounding the pools are bronze panels engraved with the names of the 2,983 individuals who died in the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001; included are the names of those killed at the Twin Towers, at the Pentagon, at Flight 93's Pennsylvania crash site and in the February 1993 World Trade Center bombing.

The Memorial also includes 400 swamp white oak trees and a resurrected Callery pear tree called the Survivor Tree, rescued from the ruins of the towers.

The NYC Heritage Tourism Center kiosk in City Hall Park (Broadway and Barclay streets) and the Skyscraper Museum are good places to get information about the history and future of this site during redevelopment.